Body wrapped in plastic found on 8th floor of hospital

But Michael Watkins said the phone conversation never took place. He said his wife wouldn’t have qualified for hospital life insurance until she had six months of work experience.

He said his inlaws never liked him and wanted to blame him for her murder. He said he was deeply in love with Jennifer and even if she divorced him would have never harmed her.

Irene Skinner was walking into her home after searching for her daughter when she caught parts of Michael Watkins’ tirade. She said she overheard him complaining about missing a deadline to get money.

It wasn’t until the next day that a contract elevator maintenance worker smelled an odor in the hospital’s eighth-floor stairwell.

Detectives have told the Skinners they have evidence that their daughter was killed on the fifth floor then taken to the eighth floor. Irene Skinner said they haven’t told her what that evidence was. That scenario raised some questions though, she said.

“How could somebody drag a dead body through the hospital without anybody knowing about it?” Irene Skinner asked.

She believes the answer was a laundary cart. When she searched for her daughter, she looked throughout the hospital, she saw a large laundary cart being pushed into a limited access utility elevator. It dawned on her that is what could have happened.

Coworkers have speculated another possibility, according to Billy Skinner.

Jennifer Watkins, like other co-workers, would often go to the hospital’s top floor and slip through the stairway door that was often propped open with a rock by other smokers so they could have access to the stairway leading to the hospital’s helipad, Billy Skinner said.

At the time of the murder, contractors were doing construction on the eighth floor, Colorado Springs cold case Det. Joe Matiatos said. A lot of people had keys to the eighth floor stairwell, he said.

Michael Watkins said shortly before his wife was killed a doctor at the hospital propositioned her in an elevator and when she told him she was happily married, he said that “problem could be taken care of.” He said the doctor may have concluded that if he couldn’t have Jennifer, no one could.

In the course of three extensive interviews with detectives, he said he told police about that incident and another case in which someone had witnessed a black man having an argument with his wife.

Michael Watkins said police told him security cameras had recorded an argument between a black man and his wife on the day she was killed.

Another possible scenario is that Jennifer took a smoke break the night she was killed and was accompanied by her killer, Billy Skinner said.

I would like to make some corrections to this article on my daughter’s murder;

1. She was murdered on Nov. 5th, 1999 and found on Nov. 10th, 1999

2. I personally told police that her husband did not kill her.

3. They did not have a happy relationship due to his anger outburst.
Charges were never brought against Michael.
Our daughter and cared deeply for Michael, we just thought she could find some one to love and care for her, not the other way around – she loved Michael and covered up for him a number of times. The facts are clear and I wish that my deceased daughter’s name was respected even though she’s gone.

Irene Skinner

I would like to make some corrections to this article on my daughter’s murder;

1. She was murdered on Nov. 5th, 1999 and found on Nov. 10th, 1999

2. I personally told police that her husband did not kill her.

3. They did not have a happy relationship due to his anger outburst.
Charges were never brought against Michael.
Our daughter and cared deeply for Michael, we just thought she could find some one to love and care for her, not the other way around – she loved Michael and covered up for him a number of times. The facts are clear and I wish that my deceased daughter’s name was respected even though she’s gone.

jessica

This world has gotten crazy. Something needs done. God bless this victim.

jessica

This world has gotten crazy. Something needs done. God bless this victim.

Gregg

My heart is forever broken! I promise that before I leave this world, you will be able to rest in peace .
Always Love,
Gregg

Gregg

My heart is forever broken! I promise that before I leave this world, you will be able to rest in peace .
Always Love,
Gregg

Donna

I would be Jennifer’s Aunt from her father’s side. We raised a reward fund to be given to anyone with information on Jennifer’s death. Please call and help find this murder.

Donna

Donna

I would be Jennifer’s Aunt from her father’s side. We raised a reward fund to be given to anyone with information on Jennifer’s death. Please call and help find this murder.

Donna

Takiyah Crawford

My cousin Jeffrey Bexley was fatally shot outside a house on Holly St., where he lived previously, on 02/17/1983. It is now a cold case file, but I wanted to know was there ever any information or tips given about this case?

Takiyah Crawford

My cousin Jeffrey Bexley was fatally shot outside a house on Holly St., where he lived previously, on 02/17/1983. It is now a cold case file, but I wanted to know was there ever any information or tips given about this case?

Gregg

I miss you, Honey!

Gregg

I miss you, Honey!

Anonymous

Jennifer I never forgot you I hope that here soon they will find who muder you. I do miss you and will remeber you forever

Anonymous

Jennifer I never forgot you I hope that here soon they will find who muder you. I do miss you and will remeber you forever

Anonymous

Jenifer I miss you and your friendship. I will always pray and hope you will get justice.

carey

Anonymous

Jenifer I miss you and your friendship. I will always pray and hope you will get justice.

carey

Kimberlie

This article is about my cousin who I miss dearly. I did not know her well but she was a big part of my life and my mother’s and the rest of my family. I am only 15 and today is the tenth year aniversary of her murder and still to this day there is no killer to this murder. But I swear on my life that before I die I will bring this case to an ending with a killer behind bars. I love and miss my cousin very much. Please help find her killer.

Kimberlie

This article is about my cousin who I miss dearly. I did not know her well but she was a big part of my life and my mother’s and the rest of my family. I am only 15 and today is the tenth year aniversary of her murder and still to this day there is no killer to this murder. But I swear on my life that before I die I will bring this case to an ending with a killer behind bars. I love and miss my cousin very much. Please help find her killer.

A caring nurse

I am a nurse at Memorial and let me tell you, this case still gives me the chills. I worked the weekend that she disappeared. I never met her or her husband but I remember all the attention her disappearance was getting and I remember when she was found and all the managers were called to an emergency meeting. I cried.It bothers me that this is an unsolved murder and a cold case. It bothers me that so many people had access to the helipad. Everytime I look around at my coworkers, especially maintenance, housekeeping and security I wonder if they are involved or know something. Rest in peace Jennifer and for God's sake, someome please put this case to rest. As an employee, I am still uncomfortable that this is unsolved.

Ruth

Things like these 'cold cases' are the worst of all, it's horrific enough when the killer has been found, but when there are seemingly no more leads, then the unknown, the hurt, and the agony of it all continues on…I pray that whoever the person/persons are that they will slip up somehow, some way and be caught, and if not in this world, they will find justice when they stand before an Almighty God, my Lord Jesus Christ…….God be with you and bring you peace, the peace that only Jesus can bring….I feel your pain………Ruth

Kim Johnston

Poor Jennifer, She must have been lured up in Memorial Hospital.Perhaps she was knocked out by one man and the accomplice panic and wrap her in a construction tarp and left her there.Whomever wanted to see Jennifer that night was rejected and could not take no for answer.So she call her mother back or attend to her children. The video left Jennifer’s car untouch.

Ness

I would like to have this Re-opened somehow. its owed to the family, and although I have many suspicions myself, much more investigation should have been done and nothing can be said for sure due to lack of evidence and investigation in my opinion. and can possibly still be done from what I see and read. as a Young (what you could call) Journalist maybe I can unlock some links between facts and evidence or something along those lines. I will take it up as my own duty to the people of Colorado and the friends and family of the victim.

Kirk Mitchell is a general assignment reporter at The Denver Post who focuses on criminal justice stories. He began working at the newspaper in 1998, after writing for newspapers in Mesa, Ariz., and Twin Falls, Idaho, and The Associated Press in Salt Lake City. Mitchell first started writing the Cold Case blog in Fall 2007, in part because Colorado has more than 1,400 unsolved homicides.